How to do the multiple OS in a single Pxeboot server.

I want to boot different OS like Fedora, CentOS, RHEL in the client

1 Answer

I thought it is good to mention the whole setup I have which may contain interesting tricks.

• It is possible to make separate directories within tftp root folder:

  $ tree -L 2
  .
  ├── anax_bios_flash.img
  ├── clonezilla_20100623
  │   ├── filesystem.squashfs
  │   ├── initrd.img
  │   ├── parameters.txt
  │   └── vmlinuz
  ├── display_ubuntu
  │   ├── adtext.cfg
  │   ├── f10.txt
  │   ├── f1.txt
  │   ├── f2.txt
  │   ├── f3.txt
  │   ├── f4.txt
  │   ├── f5.txt
  │   ├── f6.txt
  │   ├── f7.txt
  │   ├── f8.txt
  │   ├── f9.txt
  │   ├── menu.cfg
  │   ├── po4a.cfg
  │   ├── prompt.cfg
  │   ├── splash0.png
  │   ├── splash1.png
  │   ├── splash.png
  │   ├── splash.xcf
  │   ├── stdmenu.cfg
  │   ├── text.cfg
  │   └── vesamenu.c32
  ├── etc
  │   └── boot.conf
  ├── FDSTD.144
  ├── hello.boot
  ├── memdisk
  ├── Notes.txt
  ├── openbsd_3.9
  │   ├── bsd
  │   ├── bsd.mp
  │   ├── bsd.rd
  │   └── pxeboot.0
  ├── ploplinux_4.0.0
  │   ├── boot.msg
  │   ├── bzimage
  │   ├── initrfs.gz
  │   ├── memtest
  │   ├── ploplinux
  │   ├── plpbt.bin
  │   ├── plpinstc.com
  │   ├── pluspacks
  │   ├── pxelinux.0
  │   ├── pxelinux.cfg
  │   └── readme.txt
  ├── pmagic_5.5
  │   ├── boot
  │   ├── bzImage
  │   ├── initramfs
  │   └── sample_pxelinux.cfg
  ├── pmagic_6.7
  │   ├── boot
  │   ├── bzImage
  │   └── initramfs
  ├── pxechain.com
  ├── pxelinux.0
  ├── pxelinux.cfg
  │   ├── default
  │   └── default.backup
  ├── slitaz-cooking.iso
  ├── ubuntu_10.04
  │   ├── initrd.gz
  │   └── vmlinuz
  ├── ubuntu_mini.iso
  └── unattended_4.9 ├── bzImage ├── default ├── initrd ├── menu.c32 └── pxelinux.0

• Then change , or

  For me, I used Ubuntu Netboot as template, So as you can see includes display_ubuntu/menu.cfg which by itself includes display_ubuntu/text.cfg which contains the main menu of Ubuntu boot:

  Contents of

  include display_ubuntu/menu.cfg
  default display_ubuntu/vesamenu.c32
  prompt 0
  timeout 0

  Contents of display_ubuntu/menu.cfg

  menu hshift 7
  menu width 65
  menu margin 5
  menu title GNU/Linux Rescue Collection
  include display_ubuntu/stdmenu.cfg
  include display_ubuntu/text.cfg
  menu begin advanced menu title Advanced options label mainmenu menu label ^Back.. menu exit include display_ubuntu/stdmenu.cfg include display_ubuntu/adtext.cfg
  menu end
  label help menu label ^Help config display_ubuntu/prompt.cfg

  Contents of display_ubuntu/text.cfg

  DEFAULT partedmagic_6.7
  LABEL test_kernel MENU LABEL ^Test Kernel KERNEL hello.boot
  LABEL partedmagic_6.7 LINUX pmagic_6.7/bzImage INITRD pmagic_6.7/initramfs APPEND edd=off load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 rw vga=normal loglevel=9 max_loop=256
  LABEL partedmagic_5.5 MENU LABEL PartedMagic 5.5 LINUX pmagic_5.5/bzImage APPEND initrd=pmagic_5.5/initramfs edd=off noapic load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 rw vga=791 loglevel=0 max_loop=256
  menu begin pmagic_advanced menu title PartedMagic 5.5 Advanced label mainmenu menu label ^Back.. menu exit include /pmagic_5.5/boot/syslinux.cfg
  menu end
  LABEL clonezilla_20100623 MENU LABEL ^CloneZilla 2010.06.23 KERNEL clonezilla_20100623/vmlinuz APPEND initrd=clonezilla_20100623/initrd.img boot=live union=aufs noswap noprompt vga=788 ocs_live_keymap=NONE ocs_lang=en_US.UTF-8 fetch=tftp://192.168.10.123/clonezilla_20100623/filesystem.squashfs
  LABEL unattended_4.9 MENU LABEL Unattended 4.9 for ^XP KERNEL unattended_4.9/bzImage APPEND initrd=unattended_4.9/initrd z_path=\\192.168.10.123\install_4.9
  LABEL slitaz MENU LABEL ^Slitaz.iso TEXT HELP
  Testing boot from iso. ENDTEXT KERNEL memdisk APPEND initrd=slitaz-cooking.iso
  LABEL mini_ubutnu MENU LABEL Mini-Ubuntu KERNEL memdisk APPEND initrd=ubuntu_mini.iso
  LABEL freedos_std MENU LABEL ^FreeDOS STD TEXT HELP
  Testing boot from Floppy IMG. ENDTEXT KERNEL memdisk APPEND initrd=FDSTD.144
  LABEL anax_bios_flash MENU LABEL Anax Bios Flash KERNEL memdisk APPEND initrd=anax_bios_flash.img
  LABEL openbsd MENU LABEL ^OpenBSD 3.9 KERNEL openbsd_3.9/pxeboot.0
  LABEL plop_4.0.0 MENU LABEL PlopLinux 4.0.0 KERNEL ploplinux_4.0.0/bzimage APPEND initrd=ploplinux_4.0.0/initrfs.gz vga=1 nfsmount=192.168.10.123:/media/gnu_files/_servers/tftp/ploplinux_4.0.0/ploplinux
  LABEL ubuntu_10.04_install menu label ^Ubuntu 10.04 net install kernel ubuntu_10.04/vmlinuz append vga=normal initrd=ubuntu_10.04/initrd.gz -- quiet
  LABEL ubuntu_10.04_cli menu label Ubuntu 10.04 ^command-line net install kernel ubuntu_10.04/vmlinuz append tasks=standard pkgsel/language-pack-patterns= pkgsel/install-language-support=false vga=normal initrd=ubuntu_10.04/initrd.gz -- quiet
  LABEL pxeserver2 menu label Switch to 2nd PXE server... kernel pxechain.com append 192.168.10.254::pxelinux.0

Notes:

• hello.boot is a just tiny kernel, I used it for initial PXE tests.

• memdisk is used as kernel to load (over PXE):

  Raw floppy images: anax_bios_flash.img and FDSTD.144

  CD ISO images: slitaz-cooking.iso and ubuntu_mini.iso

• pxechain.com used to chain load other PXE server.

  pxechain.com is available within syslinux-common package starting from trusty (Thanks to @muru) or syslinux project archive under different filename pxechn.c32.

• All listed Linux distributions are loaded by same pxelinux.0 located on tftp root folder. The exception is with OpenBSD (which has BSD kernel), pxelinux.0 loads openbsd_3.9/pxeboot.0, the PXE bootstrap coming with OpenBSD. It has its own configuration at etc/boot.conf. (This method is called chain loading)

  Contents of etc/boot.conf

  set image openbsd_3.9/bsd

• You can use include instead of listing the whole menu in a single file, or may be chain menus to to keep the original advanced menus/options of each distribution.

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